11/28: Letters to the Editor

November 28, 2010

Cheating punishment should fit the crime

Tony Waldrop's defense of the University of Central Florida's cheating scandal (My Word: "Cheating isn't UCF's way," Orlando Sentinel, Nov. 21) amounts to little more than platitudes and a comfortable pat on the back to the administration for supposedly creating a "campus environment where cheating is unacceptable."

Several of the programs cited, such as the Faculty Ethics Committee, a sentence about honesty in the UCF creed and ethics bowls, have minimal effect on the average student.

Others, such as an ethical seminar once a student has been found cheating, and a "Z" grade for those convicted of cheating, are delivered after the fact. Maybe, as Waldrop theorizes, they do have deterrent value; maybe they don't. Obviously, they're not enough to prevent more than 200 students from cheating on their business class test.

The main problem with the program is there are no substantive consequences to the cheating episodes. My suggestion to the working group Waldrop has created is to consider expulsion for the first offense. Cheating is a serious offense, which not only isn't fair to the students who don't cheat, but also raises issues of trust, honor and integrity in the students who do.

If UCF's goal is "building a culture of academic integrity," the punishment should more appropriately fit the crime.

It's so typical that in the wake of the Florida Highway Patrol's brief chase and capture of Trevis Sherwood the day of the Bethune-Cookman/Florida A&M University football game that a local NAACP official and City Commissioner Daisy Lynum would aim their criticism at the troopers.

Where is their ire over the actions of this career criminal and, especially, the judge who let him stay on our streets on probation despite two convictions for armed burglary and robbery in recent years? Do they not bear primary responsibility for this incident?

Witnesses saw Sherwood appear to accelerate toward a trooper. Should the trooper have (a) said, "Oh, you poor, misunderstood young man, go ahead and splatter me across the pavement," or (b) attempted to protect himself by firing at the man?

In response to the article "Social Security fix 'simple,' nonpartisan group says," Orlando Sentinel, Wednesday: One can't help but be pleased at the efforts of a presidential commission to rescue Social Security before it reaches crisis levels. It is disappointing, however, that suggestions to follow the lead of Medicare and immediately begin applying FICA taxes to total earnings were ignored.

Higher-income earners who can best afford to pay this tax are exempted from it once their income exceeds $106,800, yet minimum-wage workers and others pay the FICA tax on every penny they earn.

The commission's bias toward high-income earners is evident in quoting a focus group assembled by AARP that states, "senior citizens … fear change." Actually, it's AARP that fears change. Watch the TV ads. AARP became a huge moneymaker by peddling supplemental insurance to government programs.

A fiscally strong Social Security with a full range of benefits is not in the interests of private insurers. Let's reconsider the tax avoidance we give to the highest-income people before suggesting people work until age 68, using indices that don't measure inflation on retirees, etc.

Frank J. Wood Clermont

Airport security

The recent flap about the Transportation Security Administration's crackdown at airport-screening centers is a classic example of how the national TV media exploit and manipulate a relatively small event into one of major proportions, thereby creating news.

A number of commentators are beginning to use the word "profiling" as a possible solution to the problem. That term raises the specter of past sins by law-enforcement officers throughout the country, and invoking the word profiling paralyzes liberals and sends shock waves throughout the progressive community. Already, so much has been sacrificed for political correctness that the liberals cannot face reality — that profiling would be appropriate.

There will be a gradual shift to profiling, but bureaucratic resistance will be strong. When some form of profiling is implemented, it will carry a different banner so as not to shock the dignity of liberals by exposing the fact that political correctness is not anchored in reality.

Edward R. Hagler Orlando

Several years ago, I received the first of two total knee replacements. Since that time, I have been through security at least once per month, both international and domestic.

With titanium knees and a metal jaw, I light up the metal detectors like a Christmas tree. As such, I am the subject of a physical pat down. At no time have I ever been uncomfortable or thought my privacy was being compromised.

With an aging population and the advent of medical technology, people like me with artificial implants will be subject to this more often then naught. If this is the small price I pay to fly safely, then so be it.